Wakefield

A Tale of Two Seats

Marginal Liberal, 0.7%

Wakefield starts in the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide in the Salisbury/Elizabeth area then stretches north through Gawler to the rural towns of Kapunda, Port Wakefield and Balaklava and the Clare Valley wine area. The seat was created in 2004 by merging the old mostly rural Wakefield with the abolished suburban seat of Bonython. At the 2001 census, Wakefield recorded the lowest proportion of people with tertiary qualifications.

David Fawcett won the seat for the Liberal Party at the 2004 poll. Wakefield was created in 1903 and has been held continuously by the Liberal Party since 1946. In contrast, Bonython was Labor-held from its creation in 1955 until its abolition.

Although Wakefield is slightly more marginal than Makin, it will probably be a harder task for Labor to win, since Fawcett will have the advantage of incumbency. Nonetheless, demographic change will be working in Labor’s favour, and if South Australia continues to run Labor’s way then Fawcett will find it hard to hold off Labor candidate Nick Champion.

Declared Candidates

• Terry Allen, Greens 
• Nick Champion, Australian Labor Party 
• Pauline Edmunds, What Women Want 
• David Fawcett, Liberal Party 
• Felicity Martin, Australian Democrats   

2 PARTY PREFERRED BOOTH SWINGS 2004 ELECTION

OTHER SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MARGINALS

 

Boothby

Hindmarsh

Kingston

Makin

 

FULL LIST OF MARGINALS